A LABRADOR SPRING 
which has a sweet, gentle whistling note re- 
sembling very much one of the notes of the 
wood pewee. 
Bird songs are believed to be developments 
from call-notes. In some cases this is very 
evident. The European house sparrow repeats 
its nerve-racking call-note so continuously, and 
with such evident purpose on spring mornings, 
that a thoughtful observer must admit that 
this repetition constitutes the bird’s love-song. 
In other birds this connection is less evident, but 
the evolution of the song can often be detected. 
The wood pewee, by the irony of scientific fate 
although technically classed among the non- 
singing birds, has developed from its sweet and 
simple whistling call-note a delightfully com- 
plicated and truly musical composition, which, 
without question, deserves the name of a song. 
This in its delightful entirety is only vouch- 
safed in the full ecstasy of passion. A first 
cousin of the wood pewee, a bird that resembles 
it as closely as the proverbial peas resemble 
each other, has a very different song, which 
indeed as a musical performance has no claim 
to the name of song. This bird — the least 
flycatcher — is also called the chebec from the 
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